Fangasm at the CW Upfronts

Lynn happened to be in New York City today anyway, so how could she pass up the chance to stop by the CW Upfronts and (hopefully) catch a glimpse of Jared and Jensen.

As you can see from the photos below, she managed to keep her wits about her enough to snap a few photos with her cell phone (since she wasn’t prepared with a camera). Scruffy boys!

The Upfronts are interesting things, an event entirely engineered for publicity. We were psyched that Supernatural was included again, for the first time in a while, along with The Vampire Diaries, Nikita, Hart of Dixie, and possibly 90210, though we can’t swear to it. The celebs spend a great deal of time walking the ‘red carpet’, i.e. posing for photos and video interviews in front of the CW logo-lined hallway that connects the hotel where they were all staying to the NY City Center where the Upfronts were held. That meant they had to cross bustling West 55th Street, much to the horn-blastingly-loud dismay of a traffic jam of New Yorkers just trying to make their way across the city. Every few minutes, a pedestrian would ask the gathered fans “What’s going on here? Is it someone famous?” New Yorkers are so accustomed to someone famous on every other corner, that our response was usually met with a shrug as they kept walking. Some of the stars stopped to sign autographs for the throngs of fans waiting at the end of the tunnel before they crossed the street, including Jensen, who signed while he waited for Jared to catch up.

Lynn was temporarily blinded (ahem) as they made their way by her on the way in, so no photos were taken. Ummm….It was very sunny in New York today! This of course doesn’t explain why she managed to take photos of many other celebrities….

Some of the actors were ushered right into the building – Ian Somerhalder looked like he wanted to protest, but he was whisked inside anyway, managing a sheepish wave.

Paul Wesley escaped his handlers and came over to chat, so Lynn had the opportunity to tell him how much she enjoyed this season of The Vampire Diaries. What a nice guy!

And photogenic J Steven McQueen, Zach Roerig and Kat Graham also came by to chat, much to the delight of some of the fans flanking Lynn to the right and left. The noise level was so high with screaming that poor Zach had to cover his ears for a minute. Not the best photos, since it’s next to impossible to take pictures with your phone when someone is literally standing six inches from you – but it was a pleasure watching this cast interact with their fans so enthusiastically and appreciatively.

Justin Hartley also spent quite a bit of time chatting with fans and posing for photos. (We know him from Smallville, but what is he in now? Lynn refrained from making a fool of herself by being clueless and just chatted about the weather.)

As the actors made their way out of the City Center after the Upfronts, Lynn managed to pull it together enough to snap that shot of Jensen (above) waving hello, so that’s something. And she managed one of Jared too (also above), though it’s not exactly a close-up. Damn cell phone! As the boys crossed the street and made their way down the tunnel to their hotel, we could hear Jared calling “Jensen!” when they got separated.

(Jensen)

Awwww.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon in NYC. We hadn’t seen the boys for a while, so it was nice just to lay eyes on them. As you may have guessed.

Fan Phenomena: Supernatural on Amazon

Fangasm on Amazon

Fandom at the Crossroads on Amazon

Fan Culture: Theory/Practice on Amazon

Our Story

This is the story of two college professors who fell hard for a show called Supernatural. Obsession, devotion, fascination, call it what you will. We decided to figure out what was going on with us by writing a book on fandom from the fans' perspective. As academics do, we hit the libraries and internet, accumulating stacks of articles and hundreds of pages of research. We typed and revised and theorized, quoted and footnoted, and ended up with an academic text crammed full of the current scholarship on fandom.

This is not that book.

Somewhere along the line, the research took a back seat to the road trip as we traveled across the US and Canada interviewing the show’s fans, as well as the actors and directors, writers, journalists, bloggers, convention organizers, significant others and insignificant hangers-on. Fangasm! is the story of that year-long roadtrip -- the surprises we never saw coming, the secrets uncovered, the behind-the-scenes insights, the heartwarming and heartbreaking fan confessions. It’s also the story of our shared obsession and the friendship that sustains us through 4 am line-ups, overtaxed credit cards, canceled flights and airport camp-outs, and of course the occasional accusations of insanity.

Order Fangasm now from Amazon by clicking the link at the top of this page.

Media Coverage

Check out the February 2016 issue of Nylon Magazine - we're quoted in an article about fandom!

What Else We’re Writing

We've written several articles for Supernatural Magazine, including features on the fan convention experience, and behind the scenes on the set. We have also written the academic version of this story, Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships , and edited a collection on fan culture, Fan Culture: Theory/Practice.
You can also order our book Fan Phenomena: Supernatural, with chapters by cast, crew and fans of Supernatural. Check out what Misha Collins and Richard Speight, Jr. have to say in their insightful (and amusing) chapters. Click the links at the top of the page to order.

And coming in May 2017, look for an exciting new book - Family Don't End With Blood: Cast and Fans on How Supernatural Changed Lives with powerful chapters by ten Supernatural actors including Jared Padalecki!

Kathy is also the Principal Editor and Lynn on the Editorial Board of The Journal Of Fandom Studies, published by Intellect. The most recent issue is available now.